Categories: Science

NASA releases UARS re-entry location, believes debris landed in Pacific

NASA and the U.S. Joint Space Operations Center (USSTRATCOM) have revealed the nominal location where large parts of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) crashed landed in the Pacific Ocean and not Canada.

Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite via Wikiedpa/NASA

After spending most of yesterday tracking the satellite’s location in realtime (view our report here) the space agency revealed that the satellite had crashed on Canadian Soil (view our report here).  This was a reversal of the agency’s prediction that the satellite would not make landfall over North America.

However, speaking on a live teleconference NASA said it believes UARS ploughed through the atmosphere 04:16 GMT at 31° North and 219° East (September 24) and this would suggest that it strew debris across the Pacific Ocean not over Canada or USA.


View Larger Map

DoDʼs Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg AFB, CA, has assessed that NASAʼs Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite reentered the atmosphere sometime between 0323 and 0509 GMT on 24 September. During this period the satellite passed over Canada, the African continent, and the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The mid-point of that groundtrack and a possible reentry location is 31 N latitude and 219 E longitude (green circle marker on the above map). Credit NASA

This re-entry location would place the satellite 1860 km from San Francisco and 1969 km from Sacramento. However NASA says that “we may never know” exactly where UARS came down.  The agency said that it will only be able to accurately know the re-entry location from eye-witnesses.

NASA downplayed the risk from the satellite by saying that every day one satellite makes re-entry into the atmosphere for the past 50 years.

Tweeting this morning NASA was keen to point out that any debris from the satellite, regardless of where it landed, is the property of the United States.

https://twitter.com/NASA/status/117477900810334209″ data-datetime=”2011-09-24T05:58:08+00:00

NASA says that if the public comes across what they believe is debris that they should call the emergency services.

Ajit Jain

Ajit Jain is marketing and sales head at Octal Info Solution, a leading iPhone app development company and offering platform to hire Android app developers for your own app development project. He is available to connect on Google Plus, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Recent Posts

OpenAI submitted models to the hardest math test yet for AI

OpenAI published its proof attempts on February 14 for First Proof, a challenge put together…

1 day ago

The hidden costs of sedentary work: Why prevention starts at your desk

We all know that a sedentary lifestyle is harmful to our health. But recent studies…

1 day ago

Solving the headache of migrating cloud-based mailboxes for the enterprise

As organizations increasingly operate across hybrid and cloud-based email systems, migrating enterprise mailboxes has become…

1 day ago

Digital ID, programmable money pave way for ‘dystopian hellhole, horrific totalitarian regimes’: ESN at European Parliament

Digital ID, programmable money like Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), and AI are paving the…

3 days ago

Elon Musk says tariffs make solar artificially expensive in the U.S. But there is much more at play: Op-ed

Earlier this year, Elon Musk was direct about what comes next for the global economy:…

4 days ago

Britive Unified PAM Integrates with New Extended Plan for AWS Security Hub

Britive, provider of a unified privileged access management (PAM) platform, today announced its unified PAM…

4 days ago